Awarded, but now the hard work starts

Yesterday Jonny and I attended the Guardian Social Entrepreneurship Awards Ceremony. The order of the day was to congratulate, inspire and to network, darling, all the UnLtd award winners. There were a whole bunch of winners there bubbling with their new ideas and champagne (that came out towards the end of the day). It was certainly interesting to find out what others are up to, and fantastic to find out that loads of them were excited about OUR idea! Speeches came from a previous winner – who has made a high production schools video about recycling, an introduction to creative behaviour – so us entrepreneurs have the tools to continue to innovate, and an amusing ramble from John Bird, the founder of The Big Issue, about failure and the will to succeed.

This is just one of the events that UnLtd are going to be arranging to give us the maximum opportunity to benefit from other’s experiences. Another service they have for us is providing a Project Manager. I’m not entirely sure what the Project Manager will do, but I do already have a bunch of questions for her so I think it will prove useful.

On a more personal note, I am now settled (back) in New Cross, South East London, in wonderfully bohemian housing cooperative called Sanford Housing Cooperative. The cooperative is currently in the process of reducing it’s carbon emissions by 60% by improving efficiency and using sustainable fuels (including the installation of biomass boilers). To make sure I’m contributing to the community I put myself forward, and have been elected, as Secretary.

As the seasons change (eventually) it feels great to be settled back into London, and for so much exciting stuff to look forward to. I’ll be sure to keep you posted…